Soldiers to be welcomed home today

Army reservists with the 680th Engineer Company, based in Canandaigua, are scheduled to return today after 10 months in Iraq.

Julie Sherwood, staff writer

Spc. Matthew Pickering of Fairport has never met his baby daughter.

Little Kaitlyn Rae Pickering was born in May while Matthew was in the final weeks of his 10-month deployment in Iraq. If all goes as planned, Matthew will meet Kaitlyn today as he and others in the 680th Engineer Company out of Canandaigua return home to friends, family and fanfare.

“I am so ready, I can’t see straight,” said Shawn Rice of Ovid, Seneca County. She and her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Erick Rice, were apart for their first wedding anniversary last August. They look forward to spending this one together.

The 60-some members of the 680th left for Iraq July 9, 2007. They returned to the states June 20 and have been at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

The company is to be escorted down Route 332 beginning about 11:45 a.m. by police and firefighters in a processional that will end at the armory at 145 Charlotte St., said Rice.

The processional will hang a left on Gibson Street and then a left on Charlotte, she said. Plenty of fanfare is planned with balloons, banners, flags and refreshments at the armory, said Shawn, an organizer of the homecoming festivities.

Though the guys will be anxious to join their families and leave for their homes — many of which are in the Finger Lakes region — the festivities are meant to bring out the public first and give the company a big, patriotic “thank you,” she said.

The public is asked to line Route 332 from the American Legion and along Gibson Street and Charlotte.